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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

At the end of every year I make a list of things I want to accomplish within the next year. I have been doing this since I was about 15, and gives me something to work towards when I feel like my life has lost all meaning. I am going to post my list on here and start a page where I detail how I accomplish each goal once it gets crossed off the list. Some of these things will bring me inner peace, some will just bring me joy. So now I present:

The 2014 To Do List

Go To New York

See a show on Broadway

Star in a musical ;)

Go back to school

Pay off my student loans

Become a freelance writer/get my own column

Run five miles without stopping

Visit a different country

Volunteer

Learn to drive

Buy a car

Get my iPhone screen fixed

Create a webseries

Participate in a show with a non-local theatre group

Make batman and robin outfits for me and Shandara - take pictures - fight crime

Go viral

Write a book. A good one.

Learn How to do a back handspring

Go to a concert

Perform at a poetry slam

Perfect my liquid eyeliner

Paint my nails within the lines

Defy Gravity

Take aerial classes (so I can do that cool ribbon work stuff at the circus)

Be on the front page of the paper

Do 21 Random Acts of Kindness on my birthday

Live for everyone who can't

Defy gravity

Friday, December 27, 2013

Thank you so much for posting this photo on your Facebook page of your "plus-sized" model, Robyn Lawley. Now normally, I would just appreciate this photo of this flawless human being who isn't stick thin making it in the fashion industry. However, today I learned that anyone who isn't 97 pounds and curve-less is a plus sized model. Today I learned that I am a plus sized human being. Today I learned that average females are plus sized. That the fashion industry thinks that I, a girl who is comfortable with how I look, because my body is pretty similar to that of the model in this photo, is larger than normal.

For too long, I have been shopping in the junior section of the store, and buying petite sized clothing from the women's section. I understand now why I have such a hard time buying clothing. I'm not picky, I've been shopping in the WRONG SECTION. Thank you so much, Cosmopolitan, for enlightening me.

I now know that size five is gigantic and no longer will I be comfortable with myself when I look in the mirror and see my touching thighs and tiny bit of a belly pooch. I have suddenly realized that I am, in fact, fat.

Let's be serious for a second. Robyn Lawley is anything but plus sized. She looks like an average sized female. And also, to clarify, there is nothing wrong with being a plus sized human being or model. Because there are women who make it in the world of modeling who are plus sized and they are gorgeous. I mean, look at the woman to the left. She is stunning. And just as good of a model as any other girl who is more petite. But I digress.

Society is so turned around when it comes to body size that an average woman is now "heavy set". Any girl weighing more than 120 weighs too much, apparently. But as most of you hopefully realize, all sizes are beautiful sizes. We have finally reached a point in time when we are starting to realize that big is beautiful, but at the same time many people have come to the conclusion that skinny girls aren't real women. And that's not true either.

But just because we are starting to realize that big isn't bad doesn't mean media like this isn't harmful. While there is no single cause of eating disorders, many studies have found that a leading contributor to body dissociation and eating disorders is the media and their unrealistic expectations of the way that women should look. This definition of what a "real woman" is is harmful to women in more ways than one. Either we're too fat or too thin and we can't make society happy, and that sucks.

Let's break this down really simple. All people who identify as female are real women. Calling a clearly average sized female a plus sized model is bad. It shames women for being the size they are, even if they are perfectly healthy. Cosmo is perpetuating the idea that average is wrong, and thinning is winning and things like that. But then again, if we all were happy with the way we looked and who we are, how would they make any money?

When I was younger I had many career plans. I wanted to be everything from a cashier at Prince's (don't ask) to a famous movie star. After a certain age, however, I, as a young adult, was expected to make a decisions about my future that would directly impact the rest of my life. I was pretty sure I knew what I wouldn't to do, but after a couple of years, I have gone through the same process of being a lot of things at once. I want to be a movie star, I want to run away with the circus, I want to be a teacher, a journalist, a Broadway costumer, the creator of a webseries, a cheer coach, a Peace Corps worker, and almost everything else. I try so hard to make up my mind on what to do with my life, but in reality, I don't have to. I am 20 years old. I have my entire life ahead of me, and while a lot of people think that they have to pursue one thing in their life, I have discovered that's not true. If you want to do it all, you can do it all. So my goal and my challenge to all of you in 2014 is to take advantage of life. I know that sounds cliché, but I think that sometimes we need to be reminded that it is okay to live by clichés. People try to tell us that acting our age is a bad thing, but being young is anything but wrong. Being young, being crazy because we're young and we can, and living life is normal. I know that sometimes life gets stressful, everything is crazy and tests are coming up, bills are due, everything is piling up, and there isn't any time to be alone or let loose. But it is important to make the time to just go nuts, to take a day off, because sometimes we all need it. Occasionally skipping out on responsibilities is okay. Professors understand if you need a day, too much stress can make one sick. Everyone has something they want to do. But there is always an excuse why you aren't doing it, right? Well, stop it. Stop making excuses as to why you can't accomplish things you want to do. Want to go on a trip, do it. I know that dreams take work, goals take work, everything takes work. But do the work to make your dreams happen. Go on that trip, ask the girl/guy out, change your major, audition for that show, take the class, just do the damn thing already. Twenty years from now you don't want to look back at your life and see all the things you wished you had done, you want to look back on a scrapbook of a life, full of all the opportunities you took, the wishes you made come true, and the smiles you had. 2014 is our year, reader. 2014 is the year in which we get stuff done. We do the things we've always wanted, we become the people we have always wanted to be. Yeah, new year new you type thing. No, change doesn't happen overnight, sometimes change takes longer than a year, sometimes change takes ten years, but it is never too early to start living life for you. So in 2014 be a twenty-something, thirty-something, fifty-something, however-old-you-are-something, and do it without regrets. Be young, be wild, be daring, live life, laugh, love, cry, travel, eat a lot of food that's bad for you, work out, do it all, see it all, taste it all, smell it all. Honestly, reader, I just want to see you brave.

Alexis Olmstead may be small, but she's got giant plans. Alexis is a part time waitress, full time diva, and Dorothy in the OVOC production of Wizard of Oz. She is currently working on getting into free lance writing and/or journalism. Someday she will be a teacher. But today she is dog sitting and they are controlling her life. Have you ever had a puppy fall asleep on you? It is like a law that you can't move until they wake up. Disturbing a sleeping puppy is technically a crime against humanity. Ask your local law officers for more information. Happy New Year, readers.